you can do what i did with it...
post some pics!
post #74

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...on-road-4.html

 

Yeah, I found a few of those too. Bubba decided to level out the car using those. I did the right thing: tossed and replaced the coil springs.

 

I haven't had too much time, but I did want to post an update and maybe it can help out others. About two weeks ago, I replaced the fuel pump, rubber hoses that go to the fuel pump, and the rubber line to carb w/ a correct steel line. I also replaced the fuel filter in the carb (the old one was toast). Long story short, no more fuel smell (when the car is off at least), and so now I'm able to store the car in my garage .

With an AC car, it didn't seem possible to remove the pump from the top. The best bet was to go through wheel well with very long extension. I replaced both the fuel pump gasket and the adapter plate gasket. To help remove the old gaskets, I used a razor blade with a plastic handle ($2 from harbor freight, being careful not to scratch the metal surfaces). Cleaning the engine block surface was a pain going through the wheel well. I tried using a plastic gasket removal tool but it wasn't strong enough to remove the 30+ year stubborn gaskets.

To hold up the pushrod, I used red-n-tacky heavy grease, which worked pretty well (it would start to slide down after a few minutes or so). I did not need to turn the engine to adjust it to TDC. I also used the trick of using a longer bolt in the bottom right of the engine block to hold the pushrod in place, although the bolt was tough to get to. For the gasket surface, I used a small amount of red RTV to help make a better seal (spread it thinly on the metal surfaces with my finger). When reattaching the fuel pump to the block, I had a half inch gap or so, but it went away as I tightened the pump bolts (making sure to alternate). To reattach the hoses, I used a clean rag with a small spray of WD-40 to lube up their insides so they could more easily slide onto the metal lines. I used gas line PTFE sealing tape from Home Depot on the brass elbow to help seal the connection to the fuel pump. To attach the metal line, I slipped it in through the top (took some finesse), and lightly tightened the fuel pump side then carb side, then tightened both. Fired it up, no leaks after a few minutes, and drove it inside. Smelled like fuel for a bit, but once the car cooled, it was ok, and now it does not smell like fuel at all, thanks everyone for the help! See below pic for new fuel pump and new steel line to carb.


38

39

 

One thing I noticed when driving the car up my slightly inclined driveway was that the parking brake stopped working... so I think the next thing I will be focusing on is brakes (which already leak if you look at some of the initial pictures in the thread, and are generally pretty poor). I'll take some time to read the AIM, service manual, and forum about how to bleed brakes and rebuild the calipers. I will probably switch to using o-ring seals instead of lip seal as I heard they seemed better.

 

There are a ton of brake threads...
it would be good to know what calipers you have now because if you dont have delco moraine on Both sides..you will get hit with about 80 dollar core charge at most all the vendors who use lone star...
no clue of your budget....but if it were me..and or you want to drive it before tearing into (like redo all the bushings etc..) it deeper and just do brakes...
-replace the rubber brake lines use USA made from vendors..i got napa china crap..
- consider new short metal prebent lines from vendors on the rears at least...
- try rebuilding yourself with USA vendor rebuild kits..lip and or o ring..

i had to break down and get one o ring to replace a lip seal as the bores were too big and kept failing

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-tech-performance/4334960-rear-brake-scraping-binding-help-79-l82-please.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-tech-performance/4329987-79-front-caliper-brake-rebuild.html

some bushing action

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-method-2.html

 

Thanks for the follow up and your posts describing what you did.
As far as brakes go, do some research before you purchase a single rebuild kit or part.
As stated above, there are numerous threads regarding what others have done to their calipers to stop the leaks.
Some are successful most others are not.
I was one who truly wanted to use my stock calipers and planned to rebuild with O-rings and stainless, but after reading a number of threads and then finding all my oem calipers had been replace by a prior owner, I spent the additional money and purchased new Wilwood calipers all around.
They make a front and rear kit D8-4 that are much lighter, are a direct fit and come with new stainless steel braided lines.
They are a bit pricey but everyone who has used them love them and have no more leaking brake issues, ever.
Two of the main leaking complaints on our C3’s seem to be the brake calipers and steering components.
Going to Wilwood calipers takes care of the brakes and going to a Borgeson steering box takes care of the steering leaks.
Good luck and it’s always nice helping others spend their money, lol!

 

The sending unit is held in with a twist locking ring, and an O ring from the bottom of the tank. If that O ring is old at all it will seep gas all the time because of its location on the bottom of the tank. You may have to remove the spare tire carrier to get at it (pretty easy) but it will be obvious if it leaks with fuel staining, and or wetness around that area. It's a bad design IMO

 

A tip from experience: Don't buy any caliper rebuild parts until you have pulled the calipers and stripped the old parts off them. You may very well find the bores are pitted too much to merely install new seals and you'll have to go through the replacement caliper exchange route. Even if the bores are good, there's a moderate chance the pistons are pitted. Once you get into replacing pistons, springs, seals, you might as well replace the entire caliper with a rebuilt one.

Another tip: If you have the sockets to reach, while the caliper is still mounted to the car, break loose the bolts that secure the two halves. It's much easier to do this while the caliper is secured to a 3000 pound car than flopping around on your workbench or driveway.

 

 

An update finally! Over the holiday break, I've had some time to read up on the brake system and will be taking apart the calipers to see if they are sleeved and if I can rebuild them. More updates to come this weekend.

In the meantime, I've lifted the car entirely on jack stands for the first time, and wanted to get some of your opinions on two things. The jacks are placed where the Service Manual recommends (side frame in front of rear tires and side frame behind front tires):

1. The front two jack stands are making full contact with the frame. However, the rear two jack stands are partially contacting the frame (see image 40 and 41). I wonder if this is common. The car seems very stable, I tried rocking it but it would not budge. Does anyone have any up close pictures of how their jack stands contact the frame? I don't want to push them inwards more because then they will be on top of the welded gusset plates off of the frame (you can see in image 40 the jack stand is on the welded gusset plate but also in the same z-stack as the frame).
2. Looking at the car from the rear, the right side of the leaf spring seems to droop significantly more than the left side (see image 42 and 43). Note I am on a level surface and jack stands are all the same height. What could be causing this? I haven't read about the suspension system yet.

1. 
2. 40 - rear jack stand
   
   41 - rear jack stand different angle
   
   42 - look at leaf spring
   
   43
   

 

Those frame rails are not even..normal crappy alignment of seam...they are touching...that is why sometimes a jack pad helps grip and not one small point of contact...

looks like rear bushings shot...verify bolt length to nut on spring...and bet strut bushings gone
yes i would probably move stands inward for best contact

do close inspection of spring, bolts etc..

right rear caliper appears to or has been leaking

 

Spray some lube in the spare tire tub lock and try your door key in it. Unlock the bottom of the tub, remove spare and remove the top portion of the tub. This will give you more room to work around the diff and spring mounts.

the lock will have decades of gunk in it. Spray with wd or brake clean to flush it out BEFORE you try and turn the key.

 

If you plan to keep it up on the stands for more than a couple of days, you should place two jack stands under the front frame rails to support the weight of the engine.
When ever I use jack stands I will place 12” X 12” X 3/4” plywood squares under each stand.
The base of the stands will bite into the plywood and give the stands better weight distribution against the concrete and not allow movement of the stands.
You will find that the stands supporting more weight will sink into the plywood deeper and allow the frame rails to rest on top of the other stands where you are seeing slight gaps and so supporting the weight more evenly.

 

Jack pads are nicer to the frame. Or fold-up a rag several times on top of the jack stand. I like a piece of 2x4 on the rails when jacking up. Haven’t been using wood on the concrete, but something to spread out the strain above and below the jack stands sounds best.
The uneven rear spring can be adjusted in the middle by loosening the bolts there and adjusting the spring side-to-side, adjusting the end bolts when you replace the bushings, or replace with a composite spring.
Charlie

 

Ideally, I would leave it up on jack stands for several weeks as I go through the braking system, order new parts, and install them. I'm thinking of taking off the rear right wheel to take some weight off the leaf spring in the meantime. I wonder if the leaf spring may be bad (that seems difficult to replace).

Are you talking about the circled areas below? I put two jack stands there as a backup (you can't see them in the pictures), however they are not tall enough to contact the frame rails since that part of the frame is higher than the rest of the frame (see blue in image below)


I know the left caliper is leaking, where does it look like the right one is leaking?

 

it doesn’t
buy the bigger stands as nmentioned before..

 

Thanks for the feedback. Does anybody have any pictures of their car on jackstands, with a closeup of the rear jackstand in front of the rear wheels? I'm curious how it looks like for others.

I ended up moving my rear two jackstands to be more in the corner by the frame crossmember #3 before the frame jumps up. There's more contact there, and it's still pretty stable. Time to check out the leaking caliper...

 

Jack stands just don't match the profile of the frame rails, so rotate the stand until it makes contact on both "ears". Orientation of the stand when contacting the underside really doesn't matter; you want to try to achieve contact across both ears in order to exert equal downward force of the shaft into the legs.